Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Jennifer L Eigenbrode¹, Roger E Summons², Andrew Steele³, Caroline Freissinet⁴, Maëva Millan⁵, Rafael Navarro-González⁶, Brad Sutter^{7 8}, Amy C McAdam⁴, Heather B Franz⁴, Daniel P Glavin⁴, Paul D Archer Jr⁷, Paul R Mahaffy⁴, Pamela G Conrad⁴, Joel A Hurowitz⁹, John P Grotzinger¹⁰, Sanjeev Gupta¹¹, Doug W Ming⁸, Dawn Y Sumner¹², Cyril Szopa⁵, Charles Malespin⁴, Arnaud Buch¹³, Patrice Coll¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. jennifer.l.eigenbrode@nasa.gov.
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
³ Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
⁴ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin and CNRS, Paris, France.
⁶ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Cuidad de México 04510, México.
⁷ Jacobs Technology, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁸ Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁹ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹¹ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
¹² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹³ Laboratoire Génie des Procédés et Matériaux, Centrale Supélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁴ Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot and CNRS, Créteil, France.

PMID:29880683
DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9185

Free article

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Jennifer L Eigenbrode et al. Science.2018.

Free article

.2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1096-1101.

doi: 10.1126/science.aas9185.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. jennifer.l.eigenbrode@nasa.gov.
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
³ Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
⁴ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin and CNRS, Paris, France.
⁶ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Cuidad de México 04510, México.
⁷ Jacobs Technology, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁸ Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁹ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹¹ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
¹² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹³ Laboratoire Génie des Procédés et Matériaux, Centrale Supélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁴ Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot and CNRS, Créteil, France.

PMID:29880683
DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9185

Abstract

Establishing the presence and state of organic matter, including its possible biosignatures, in martian materials has been an elusive quest, despite limited reports of the existence of organic matter on Mars. We report the in situ detection of organic matter preserved in lacustrine mudstones at the base of the ~3.5-billion-year-old Murray formation at Pahrump Hills, Gale crater, by the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite onboard the Curiosity rover. Diverse pyrolysis products, including thiophenic, aromatic, and aliphatic compounds released at high temperatures (500° to 820°C), were directly detected by evolved gas analysis. Thiophenes were also observed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Their presence suggests that sulfurization aided organic matter preservation. At least 50 nanomoles of organic carbon persists, probably as macromolecules containing 5% carbon as organic sulfur molecules.

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Organic molecules on Mars.
Ten Kate IL.Ten Kate IL.Science. 2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1068-1069. doi: 10.1126/science.aat2662.Science. 2018.PMID:29880670No abstract available.
Comments on the June 7, 2018, NASA News Release and Papers.
Levin GV, Straat PA.Levin GV, et al.Astrobiology. 2018 Jul;18(7):841-842. doi: 10.1089/ast.2018.1922. Epub 2018 Jul 16.Astrobiology. 2018.PMID:30010389Free PMC article.No abstract available.

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Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

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Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

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